Evanescent Teen Culture
Many teens experience an innate desire to reject their parents’ culture while simultaneously feeling very attuned to the feelings and caprices of peers their age. This often drives adolescents to “shop” for new cultures, only to return to a modified version of their ancestral culture upon reaching adulthood and having kids of their own (unless they experience systematic discrimination, which shifts identification toward the culture of their persecuted group).
This cycle produces evanescent teen cultures—or cultures specifically marketed to teens. Consider goth, emo, or e-girl culture—each of which features distinctive accents, dress, values, mannerisms, literature, and traditions. Evanescent teen cultures are hardly novel—consider dandy/macaroni culture as an older example.
Adolescent cultures evolve much faster than mainstream or religious cultural traditions, typically die out after a few decades, and are not conducive to happy, successful lifestyles. Rather than optimize for traditional success, contentment, or flourishing, evanescent teen cultures typically emphasize personal agency and uniqueness (highly rewarded attributes among teens).